Luke 4:42-44
Jesus Came to Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Mark 3:7-19
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Matthew 24:35
Jesus' Words Will Never Pass Away
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
1 Corinthians 15:1-8
The Resurrection of Jesus
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
John 20:24-29
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus the Same Yesterday, Today, Forever
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Jesus was a Teacher...He was also a preacher...He was a traveling Teacher and a traveling Preacher...One of the reasons He was came to earth was to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God...And large crowds followed Jesus when He was out teaching and preaching...And He taught all about God in the here and now to those listening...God was not some Abstract Idea or some Abstract Being to Him...God was and is His Father...And as one reads the gospels, you get that feeling that He was as close to God as a Son is to His Father...And I think that is something we sometimes casually miss, as we read through the four gospels...While the people often had a harder time putting a finger on who He might be, the impure spirits recognized Jesus immediately...He is the Son of God, and the Son of the Blessed One...
Jesus knows all about God and taught about Him...But Jesus did not really start a church while He was on earth...But if one thinks He did, He had Twelve members of His initial church and had many followers...It was a small church...He was the main Minister, and the best Preacher who ever has preached...They learned lessons first hand from the Master, and were eyewitnesses to Absolute Truth and Grace...He chose twelve very average and common men to follow Him and He would teach them about God and about the Old Testament Scripture...They would see the Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled right before their eyes...He would teach them how one was to interpret the Bible and how one was to live out the Bible...
He was such an interesting teacher and preacher that large crowds for some reason wanted to hear what He had to say...And I do not doubt if He walked the earth today, He would get that same interest and similar questions of who He might be...Jesus is now two thousand years removed from us, and His physical body in heaven...Time sometimes dilutes and wears on our memories...He is an older historical Figure to man now, but still He remains the same...He will always remain the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow...This is why if He would come today, His words would still be mighty, and He would speak about things we have never heard about...His wisdom is still infinite...And I personally think, He would be as mysterious as He was the first time He walked they earth, because He is from Another World, He is from Heaven...And He lives in Heaven
The early Churches and followers who followed Him two thousand years ago have moved on...History and time has made some of the events after His death, resurrection, and ascension fade a little...We get to and have the opportunity to believe in Him...We may take Him, a little for granted...We often take for granted that the early followers were persecuted for believing in Him...Many followers were killed in Rome the Arena in front of large crowds as entertainment for some Roman citizens...So many of His earlier followers died for believing in Him...Today there are still some countries with governments who do not want people to believe in Him and they are persecuted for still following Him today...
There is this form of Chronological snobbery that goes on today...C. S. Lewis and Owen Barfield came up with this logical argument describing the erroneous argument that the thinking, art, science, traveling methods, technology of an earlier time is inherently inferior to that of the current and modern time...It is like current man with all his technology and modernization is more intelligent than people, let us say who lived two thousand years ago...Lewis and Barfield commented that basically modern man with all the education of the last two thousand years, those things around him, and the number of things to do today, almost see Jesus and those who follow Him out of date...As somethings fade, we sometimes forget them...We sometimes quit defending them...But if those things are Truth, they are still Truth...And Truth lives on...One must ask themselves why did we let those things get out of date, and what has changed about that Truth?...Each of us lives no matter what year we live in, in a world circled around our own family and friends...Technology and those things around us does not make us smarter or dumber than a person one thousand or two thousand years ago...I would say or ask one thing of long ago to make a point, how did they build those pyramids?...
The followers and early Churches of Jesus still have their most unique Leader...Those who lived in His time got to see and experience the most remarkable of things ever on earth...Jesus resurrected and was raised on the third day after His death...He still is alive...He is Spirit...Five hundred people got to see Him after His death, so that His word and the story about Him would always continue...He may still have His body with those glorious wounds that St. Thomas got to touch...We must remember what He told Thomas after His resurrection, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”...